I have had an MRC prodigy advance system for a while, and purchased a second remote (Advance Elite I think) and have had them both for a while. I had no problems whatsoever with how they worked. Recently though, I have been having a large amount of trouble getting a stable connection to my layout. The screen on the dcc remote is weak, and the connection is extremely spotty. I can barely get a train to move more than a foot without the power cutting out. The problem is not with the connection, as everything on my layout works fine with dc power. Is there any way I can solve this problem without having to buy another DCC system?
Are they tethered or wireless throttles? If wire less check the batteries in the cabs. Did you make 1 cab the master one? The manual will tell you how to do this. You can only have 1 master cab. I believe each cab must have a different number assigned to it. Also, you may want to joint the MRC group: https://groups.io/g/MRCDCC Joe
Check the voltage to the rails, with a cheapo multimeter it should be about 15 VAC. The Power supply could be the problem if the voltage is lower than 13 volts. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Just turned 84, aging is definitely not for wimps.
I hope that you can fix it. I will second the motion to check the power supply. I am not familiar with MRC, but an easy way to check the power supply by itself is to do the following.
1- use a sewing or other needle and insert one into the + wire. Then do the same for the - wire. Use a multimeter to then check the Volts across the needles. If it's below 14 or so, you have a problem.
This of course does not work if the wires from the power supply are not clearly defined from one another.
If you do have to buy a new system, I would recommend a switch to NCE. It's a controversial topic, but I am a big proponent of NCE.
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
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A suggestion for checking rail voltage. Get 4 alligator clips and 2 4+/- inches of wire. Clip one set of the jumpers to one rail and one to meter contact. Repeat. Turn on meter. Read voltage with 14 v +/- will tell you that connection ok at that location. Try at several locations and if all readings are consistent, problem is located at a some point outside the power supply/ DCC controller.
Hope this helps
Mike